Wednesday, August 10, 2005

WTF Is Wrong!!!

Female circumcision surfaces in Iraq - Yahoo! News

I am so incredibly astonished and angry that such a barbaric and horrible practice as Female Genital Mutilation (Google) is still in practice in this backwater town in Iraq! I mean, this is a practice that has even been condemned by Muslim imams as not being part of the Islamic belief. I don't want to hear it about us having to respect other culture's religious practices because it is not (FGM is a social practice, and I don't care about respecting it identified as such either), despite the misguided interpretation of some passage of other of the Koran. And I don't even want to hear about this being compared to male circumcision, because they are not the same thing, not even close. I am all for tolerance across the board, but then I see things like this and I seriously think about reconsidering my stance.

My favorite part of the article:

When WADI presented the results of its survey in Vienna this spring, Mr. Osten-Sacken recalls, various Iraqi groups accused the group of being an agent of the Israelis.


Man, it didn't take long for Israel to get dragged into the fray and down into the mud. Mind you, the accusation did not stem from claims the study is making up information, rather, "They accused us of publicizing the country's secrets."

I'm just speechless.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Daniel

You said that you "don't even want to hear about this being compared to male circumcision, because they are not the same thing, not even close."

I find this interesting, given the fact that article you linked didn't provide any details on what type of circumcision is performed on girls in Iraq.

As you probably know female circumcision is not a single procedure. It's a range of procedures that covers everything from a removal of the hood of the clitoris (that is several times smaller than the foreskin), removal of labia minora only, to removal of the tip of the clitoris and infibulation.

So given the fact that no details of the procedure were provided I must conclude that the only reason why you feel it can't be compared to male circumcision is because it's performed on girls rather than boys?

Larry Williams

Daniel M. Perez said...

Hello, Larry.

No, my opposition to such a comparison comes from the misinformation of many people with whom I have spoken about the subject whose one argument is that, "well, if it's performed in boys, then why not girls?" (See a perfect example here) Usually this comes up because I am Jewish and we get to discuss brit milah.

Frustratingly, the news article fails to mention what kind of circumcision they are referring to. In my anger at the news I immediately assumed it was talking about clitoridectomy or infibulation; Wikipedia lists clitoridotomy (aka. sunnah circumcision) as associated with Islamic traditions, though I haven't found any further info on the article to know if this is what's being done. My first reaction was that there wouldn't be such a reaction if it was only clitoridotomy (which only involves the removal of the clitoral hood), but I honestly can't say that for sure. My wife, for example, feels that such a procedure is still in the same league as infibulation, uie. both mutilations of the female genitalia.

I have to admit, I was angry when I posted and made various assumptions, mainly that the kind of circumcision this Islamic is practicing is the same as that being done in Africa, which is certainly quite horrific. I also realize that I am judging things from my own point of view, and based on my set of beliefs, and that I will defend with equal zeal my right to perform a circumcision on my 8-day old son (whenever I have one) as I condemn these people for practicing their religious/social traditions, much to the annoyance of those who would argue with me that there is no difference and/or that I am being unfair and biased. What can I say, I'm human.

Anonymous said...

why shouldnt women have a clitoridotomy or a clitorexy as they seem to want to emulate men in many other respects.

Daniel M. Perez said...

I'm not even going to deign such a comment with a full reply.